Tagged: comics

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Manga Friday: Look! A Mammoth!

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  • December 28, 2007

mammoth-8034044I’ve long harbored a suspicion about the “Mammoth Books” – you’re familiar with them, right? Big fat reprint anthologies, on a wide range of subjects (fiction and nonfiction, photographic and comics) published by Constable and Robinson in the UK and imported to this side of the pond by the now-defunct Carroll & Graf? – were put together somewhat on the cheap. (This was based on my encounters with their historical reprints, which I kept thinking should be called things like The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories That Are Out of Copyright.)

But this book, I hasten to say, is made up of new material, as far as I can tell. All of the works are copyrighted 2007, though the book doesn’t say where, if anywhere, any of this appeared before. Come to think of it, that’s a bit of a problem – if this is the Best New Manga, surely that’s in comparison with other manga, and implies that this stuff was previously published?

These are the kind of problems I always have with the Mammoth Books — they’re generally nice anthologies, but aren’t quite what it says they are on the tin.

OK, so here’s what I think this book is: a collection of all-new stories, in a mostly manga manner, by creators primarily from the UK. It doesn’t actually say that – the introduction, by one-named editor “Ilya,” spends most of its time burbling about how cool manga is and how wonderful the world will be once we can all manage to sell more and more copies of more manga books – but it’s the most likely scenario. (If this really is an anthology of previously published works, and those works are “manga,” then the fact that they’re nearly all British and that none of them are, oh, Japanese, becomes much more puzzling.)

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Snaked, eyed: a review

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  • December 28, 2007

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Are you tired of the Christmas spirit? Clifford Meth and Rufus Dayglo’s Snaked is guaranteed to wash all that away.

In one of the more audacious acts of counter-programming in comics, IDW is releasing Snaked today, in the skip-ship days between December holidays. And Snaked is about as far from Christmas treacle as you can get.

If you’re already a Meth addict, you probably suspected no less. Clifford Meth is a man who does benefits for Bill Loebs and Dave Cockrum– but as a storyteller, he would take Harlan Ellison calling him bugfuck and use it as a cover pullquote. Clifford’s stories have often been dark and mean and nasty and this is no exception. His story hints at, in no particular order, violence, politics, mayhem, cannibalism, September 11, the Bush Administration, the Clinton legacy, and prison rape. Rufus Dayglo’s art reminds one of collages compiled from lunatics’ sketches with crayons drawn on newspaper clippings of murder and corruption trials.

Like I said, the feel-good story of the season.

I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re trying to smile after a few days with the in-laws*– Snaked is a brutal piece of work. But if you’re looking to dispense with plastered on holiday smiles, this book is the comics equivalent of listening to speed metal to get Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer out of your head. And that’s a good thing.

* Unless you’re hoping your in-laws meets the sort of fate that happens to some of the characters. And if so, I don’t want to know about it.

Happy 85th birthday, Stan Lee!

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  • December 28, 2007

Happy birthday to Stan the Man!

Sure, you know about his comics. You even know about his movies. But you probably don’t know the work he does with the less fortunate. Here’s a photo of him from San Diego this year, where he’s giving a big smile and a hug to a double amputee in lieu of shaking hands–

Oh, wait. That’s ComicMix’s Brian Alvey. I just took a lousy photo.

Anyway, here’s to you, Stan! May you continue to strike fear into the hearts of evil doers everywhere!

Excelsior from all of us true believers!

The Art of Bryan Talbot Review

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  • December 27, 2007

There are plenty of comics writers and artists (and combinations thereof) who have never been fashionable, but who do good, interesting work, and even dive in and out of “mainstream” comics as they go. I’m thinking about people like P. Craig Russell, Eddie Campbell, and – most to the point right now – Bryan Talbot. They mostly keep control of their own work, so they never end up as fan favorites for their run on Ultra Punching Dude, but, as consolation, they do get to do their stories their way.

The Art of Bryan Talbot is a 96-page album-sized softcover, with text by Talbot and a short introduction by Neil Gaiman, which traces Talbot’s varied career. After the requisite page of juvenilia, the book moves into Talbot’s first published comics, the “Chester P. Hackenbush” stories in his Brainstorm comic of the mid-‘70s. It all looks very late-underground; interesting but clearly at the far, tired end of a movement.

After that, Talbot’s career goes all over the place, with stints on “Judge Dredd” and “Nemesis the Warlock” for 2000 AD, a pile of art about the singer Adam Ant, some random minor comics projects, and posters/pin-ups on musical and SFnal themes. Talbot refers to himself as a “jobbing illustrator” at one point, and that describes his work in this section. It’s all technically well done, and the pieces are generally excellent for what they are, but they’re extremely various. (Also around this part of the book is a longish section of life drawings Talbot did for a class in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Pencil life drawings are great for an artist’s development, but can be slightly less compelling in the middle of a book of ink and color comics art. They really don’t seem to mesh with the other pieces of art surrounding them.) (more…)

Zeus, In Passing, by John Ostrander

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  • December 27, 2007
Having celebrated Christmas, we all now stagger towards the New Year. There’s no inherent meaning or importance to the fates of December 31 and January 1; nothing save what we invest in it. Part of the meaning is to look forward, to imagine what will be. The other is to look back and to remember what has happened in the past year especially if someone you know has died.
 
I experienced that late this year. On Saturday, November 17th, I received word from Phillip Grant that his father, Paul, has suffered a major heart attack and was not expected to live. Paul Grant died the following Tuesday.
 
I’d gotten to know Paul in my early Internet days online at the old Compuserve Information Services site, in their Comics and Animation Forum. I knew him at the time by his handle, Zeus, and his were the first online reviews that I read – Notes from Olympus, if I recall correctly. Paul, as Zeus, covered a wide range of comics and, while economical in length, each review was well written and well thought out. Paul could write. He was also an early and vocal supporter of GrimJack, for which I was and am extremely grateful.
 

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Merry Of The Merriest

Get out from under the tree and come share a little pop culture joy as ComicMix Radio lays out this week’s huge list of new comics and DVDs available to both the naughty and the nice. Plus:

• Straw Men is headed into the comics in 2008

• Freddy, Jason and Ash are sell outs!

• Nickelodeon splits in two

• Can you guess what our favorite holiday movie is? It was in the theaters nineteen years ago today!

Come on, it’s Christmas – do we really have to ask you to Press The Button?

Simone & Ajax – Christmas 2003

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  • December 23, 2007

We continue our ongoing campaign for those of you who only look at RSS feeds to actually read some comics.

Read more Simone and Ajax Christmas adventures:

1996

1997

1998

1999

2002

2004

2006

And we have more to come before the big day!

Oh, and don’t forget the ongoing Adventures of Simone and Ajax all here on ComicMix. (more…)

Because it’s Christmas, by Michael Davis

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  • December 21, 2007

24382_thumb-1397986Last week I told a bittersweet Christmas story and this week I was going to give my Christmas list of stuff that I thought would make good gifts.

Then…

I remembered the young lady I met in an airport a while back. I never got her name but she told me she wants to be a comic book artist and has no friends. She is a bit overweight and is being picked on at school because of that. She has a less than supportive family. Trust me, when I say “less than supportive” I’m being KIND.

I wrote about her in my column and related a story from my childhood that I hoped she would read.

I know what it’s like to that kid. I may not have been overweight but there were years when I felt I had no real friends. It’s the roughest around the holidays at least I had the support of my family…well most of my family.

So once again, my friend, this is for you. It’s a bit rough but trust me, it turns out OK.

My stepfather was an alcoholic and because of that I did not take my first drink until five years ago. I was under the impression that he was my real father and I did not want to go down the same road as him.

Get this: the way I found out that he was not my real father is an aunt of mine got mad at him and told me.

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A Little Song, A Little Dance, A Little Romance Down Your….

Simon & Kirby not withstanding, romance in the comics isn’t easy to come by – and today ComicMix Radio is happy to introduce you to a creator who is trying to change that by bring the romantic comedy genre to a four panel daily web comic. Meet the creator of You’ll Have That – as well as the lady who inspires him! Plus:

• Poof Harry Dresden gets set to appear in comics

• Come talk TV at MySpace

• The new Transformers series premieres in just days

The kind of fun that money can’t buy awaits you once you Press The Button!

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